Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Shabbat and Holidays
- The High Holidays
- Yom Kippur
- Shabbat and Holidays
- Rosh Hashana
- The Essence of Rosh Hashana
The Torah study is dedicatedto the full recovery of
asher ishaayahu ben rivka
From here, then, we learn that the process of drawing near to the Almighty cannot come about in skips and bounds; rather, it must play itself out step by step: first comes service based upon fear; and then, only afterwards, service deriving from love. Without properly sensing our nothingness, without properly recognizing our true insignificance before God's divine might, we are unable to attain "wholeness of heart" - to do God's will wholeheartedly.
This is the real challenge when it comes to serving God. It is easy for an individual to say: "I am willing to do that which I understand. I am ready to fulfill that which my intellect demands." Yet one who takes this approach is in fact saying: "It is pleasing for me, and I am prepared to fulfill my own desire; it is difficult for me, and it is not pleasing for me to fulfill His desire."
Fear precedes love. Man cannot attain perfect inner unity without labor and effort, refinement and purification, for "the evil inclination dwells in us." True, man was created "in God's image," yet the Scriptures also inform us that "the longing of man's heart is evil from youth." And just as enhancing and bolstering man's Godly image calls for serious effort, so too it is necessary to exert oneself in order to discard the "longing of man's heart" which is "evil from youth." As sure as the crops of the field will not grow unless the thorns and thistles are painstakingly weeded, so too the seeds of goodness that reside in man's soul will not bear fruit unless the seeds of evil are uprooted. Moreover, evil can only be subdued through fear and awe. One who is not willing to allow fear and awe to enter his heart should not expect to reap fruit from his inner "seeds of good."
It was an act of kindness on God's part to establish the High Holidays at the beginning of the year. These are days of fear and awe, days in which the heart is torn so that it may be mended; instead of a severed and broken heart, instead of opposing inner forces at battle with one another - one pulling this way, one the other - we strive to attain a unified heart, to direct our inner forces in one unified direction - "a united body," whose goal is "to do Your will."
Praiseworthy is he who demonstrates a willingness to listen and to see. Praiseworthy is he for whom these days are indeed "Days of Awe," for such a person shall merit both becoming purified by these days, and attaining an upright heart. And the reward of such will be gladness.
"Light is sown for a righteous person, and for the upright of heart - gladness."
May it be God's will that we all be signed and sealed for a good New Year.
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part I
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Our King on Rosh Hashana, Our Father on Yom Kippur.
Based on Aroch Siach, p. 221 (Rav Shaul Yisraeli)
